Chichester athletes enjoy positive end to Sussex cross-country league campaign

Thankfully conditions were vastly improved on the driving rain which greeted competitors at the county championships in early January, which meant for a fine day’s competition in all age groups.

As far as the standard in Sussex athletics is concerned at the moment, the county had its best haul of medals for a long time at the recent South of England event and many of those in action are certain to feature in the National Championships at the end of the month.

Under-11s, under-13s and under-15s

The programme started off in its usual fashion with the under-11s. Daisy Hillyer was up with the leading pack in the girls’ race and showed her best form of the season to finish in third place.

The race, incidentally, was won in commanding fashion by UK No1 Katherine Haslip, who had wowed the crowds at Goodwood the previous weekend in setting a near world best 10k time for an 11-year-old girl.

In the boys’ race in the same age group, Max Gayle continued his consistent season’s form with another top 10, placing in ninth.

Elodie Hill was equally impressive in the under-13 girls race. She finished an excellent third having kept in the leading pack for the whole of the race.

Having shown herself to be the fastest local Year 7 runner at the Bishop Luffa West Sussex Schools event during the previous week, Hill shows promise as an under-13 cross country runner as she will stay in the same age group for next season as well.

Grace Howarth again showed solid form at Bexhill in 15th.

In the under-15 races, there was strong showing from both Chichester’s girls and boys’ squads.

Ela Pemberton had one of her best runs of the season to finish a fine third in a race won by South of England medallist Grace Tuesday and featuring all the Lewes team who had scooped team silver.

There was excellent close packing from the rest of the under-15 girls’ squad with Carrie Anelay in 12th just ahead of Anya Barrett in 13th, Florence Ingram 15th and Millie Isitt 18th.

In the team standings Chichester edged out strong Brighton and Crawley teams to gain the runners-up spot behind Lewes.

For the boys, Ben Ward was first home in 14th place in another high-class race with Alessandro Schmitt 18th and Sam Cato 31st to total 63 points and good enough for 10th team, within striking distance of the top five.

Under-17s, under-20s, seniors and veterans

Chichester’s most consistent team throughout the season have been the under-17 women, who were lying in a close second place overall leading up to the Bexhill fixture.

Having already won medals at the Goodwood Cross Country Relays back in September and then repeated the performance at the Sussex Championships last month, they were determined to make it a clean sweep and become one of the very few teams in the club’s history to achieve this feat.

In spite of having been under the weather for a few days, club No1 Cerys Dickinson felt sufficiently recovered to tackle the undulating Bexhill course and after an easy start gradually made her way through the field to finish in the top 20 overall in the senior women’s race and as sixth under-17.

Isabelle Isitt packed well to finish in 11th and 13th respectively while newcomer to the team Julie Louerec-Allen did well in 17th.

Their team score of just 30 points was only beaten by Crawley and team silver was secured in front of Lewes, Brighton Phoenix and Brighton & Hove.

In the under-17 boys’ race, Harvey McGuinness followed up his fine second place in the Inter-County schools race the previous week with another good run to finish in third place and rank equal fourth over the season, just a single point behind the bronze medallist.

Also in the same race and at the other end of the age groups was Sue Baker, who added to her team silver at the recent Sussex Masters championships with an over-65 individual gold medal.

With a clash of events with the West Sussex Fun Run League, many of Chichester seniors elected to run at Crawley instead but Ben Morton made the journey down from London and was pleased with his eighth place in the senior men’s race with under-20 Callum Lorimer 35th overall and high up in his age group.

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

The cross-country national championships take place on Saturday, February 26, at the iconic Parliament Hill course in London.

Chichester’s cross country runners will be heading to London for the most eagerly anticipated fixture of the season. It will take place at their spiritual home for the first time for four years.

Chichester will be fielding competitors in virtually every age group where runners will pit themselves against the best in the land and a top 100 placing is something to be cherished.

sussexworld.co.uk/sport